New Sheep and Pasture Questions

[redtailross]

Hello, I have just got my first herd of sheep...6 shetland lambs and a 1 1/2 year old Ewe.

We have them in a small paddock right now, of 24 x 24 ft. they have eaten quite a bit of that and we have been supplementing with a little hay.

So what size pasture would you recommend? We have 10 acres. We are thinking of having them free ranging whilst we are at home.
What do you think?

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

Are you planning to breed them?

With 7 sheep, I'd want at LEAST 3 acres of WELL FENCED pasture.
If you plan to increase the size of the flock, do at least 5 acres.

If you "free range" , they will either wander off, or something will killl them.

You need enough pasture to be able to section it off, and rotate them, allowing 3-4 weeks for regrowth. Otherwise you'll just be buying lots of hay

 

[username taken]

Buy some electric fencing, and separate it into 2 acre pastures, so you can cell/rotational graze it. You could do it with conventional fencing too, if you dont like the electric.

 

[alanb]

BEARFOOT is absolutly correct , seperate your pasture into three or four paddocks and rotate ... if you allow them to eat it into the ground !! It will not re-grow and they will also pick up paresites !!! ... Now you have a shearing problem , Get your self some Hair sheep ! ! ! .......... ALAN B .

Feel free to write to [email protected]

 

[redtailross]

Thanks Guys, we are in the process of putting up a three acre pasture this weekend probably.

Alan, I am looking forward to learning to shear myself, I love handling large livestock... we weighed the lambs on Monday it was a hoot...
But what kind of sheep would be classed as hair sheep? And can you do the same with the hair as you can the fleece of a "coventional" sheep?


I am a HUGE wool wearer, there is never a day goes by when I'm not wearing it (thats the English). SO I will be using these for their fleece, and hopefully I will find someone to knit me wooly jumpers for the winter...eventually we would also like meat lambs and goats.

I'm looking into getting some Soay Sheep. They are hard to find in AK.

I will keep in touch...thank you again

 

[Sallyschickens]

Hi! I am doing the same thing you are doing. You must get this book Storey's Guide to Raising Sheep it teaches you everything and has great illustrations. I sheared my own sheep a Border Chevoit all by myself. It took a while and it was the first time for me to do that, but I did it.

My other sheep is a hair sheep a Katadin. Yea, no shearing!

Rotate them every 21 days for grass production and to keep parasites down to a min.

 

[username taken]

With hair sheep there is no shearing, so no, you cant use their hair for spinning etc. They are great low maintenance meat sheep though.

These are hair sheep, my chosen breed Damara

If you want goats, and like shearing and using the fibre, think about Angora goats!

 

[redtailross]

OOh the hair sheep are lovely, but they seem like they would struggle with the cold, Im in Alaska...

I loved your pictures, they are so beautiful. I have never seen sheep like them before...

I am getting an Angora goat this week, see pic, his name is Onyx, he is a new wether, about a year old. Very handsome...he looks like my standard poodle??!! lol

 

[username taken]

Actually Damara are very versatile, and I've seen pictures of them belly deep in snow in Canada

They grow a bit of a cashmere undercoat in cold climates, which they shed when it gets warmer.

Onyx is beautiful, love the name. I only have white angoras as the coloured ones and their fleeces have no commercial value here in Australia, but they do look very nice.

 

[danielle82]

Oh, I had some angora goats when I was a kid! Goats are fun, but very hard on the fences...My goats were anyways lol